LSU clips Gamecocks in finale to take series
Different opponent. Different city. Same result.
South Carolina blew a one-run lead in the eighth and ninth innings before LSU’s Antoine Duplantis hit a walk-off single in the 10th to lift the Tigers to a 7-6 win over the Gamecocks at Alex Box Stadium in Baton Rouge, La.
The loss is the sixth straight SEC series loss for South Carolina (27-19, 11-13 SEC).
The Tigers had runners at the corners and one out when Duplantis singled to left off USC reliever John Parke. An infield single and error put Duplantis in position to win the game and he delivered.
“It was a great college game and our kids deserve a better fate. That being said, their kids played hard too,” Gamecocks coach Chad Holbrook said. “They had 17 hits and we had nine and they did a little bit more offensively than us. We made some great defensive plays and gave ourselves a chance to win and a couple of things in the game didn’t go our way.”
LSU’s tying run in the eighth inning was controversial as with two outs Madison Stokes fielded a groundball and fired to Matt Williams. The throw beat the runner but it was ruled that Williams’ foot came off the base, allowing the tying run to score.
Replays appeared to show that Williams’ foot remained on the base but the call is not reviewable. Holbrook came out to argue and assistant Sammy Esposito was ejected in between innings for arguing.
In the ninth inning USC retook the lead on LT Tolbert’s sac fly but ended up leaving the bases loaded.
The Tigers then tied the game in the ninth on Greg Deichmann’s RBI single off Tyler Johnson. Johnson suffered the loss, surrendering four hits and two runs in 1 1/3 innings of work.
LSU had the bases loaded with one out in the ninth but Johnson was able to work out of further trouble.
The Gamecocks had a chance to regain the lead in the 10th inning but Williams was thrown out at the plate on Jacob Olson’s double to left with one out.
South Carolina took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on a Jonah Bride RBI groundout before LSU answered with a pair of runs in the second as Michael Papierski hit an RBI single and Zach Watson had an RBI groundout.
The Tigers pushed the lead to 3-1 in the fourth when Beau Jordan scored on a wild pitch before the Gamecocks answered back.
USC scored four runs in the fifth inning with Tolbert hitting an RBI single and Alex Destino drilling a three-run homer to right to put the Gamecocks up 5-3.
LSU cut the lead to 5-4 in the bottom half of the inning on Greg Deichmann’s RBI single. The score remained 5-4 before the controversy in the eighth.
TJ Hopkins finished 3-for-5 with a double, while Tolbert and Carlos Cortes each added a pair of hits.
South Carolina returns to action on Tuesday hosting Presbyterian College at 7 p.m.
This story was originally published May 7, 2017 at 6:57 PM with the headline "LSU clips Gamecocks in finale to take series."